Topic: How and what program to use

[BJ]

Ok, here is the deal.  I taped a band the other night, and they had some friends (5 to be exact) all video tape it.  I ran a matrix with my 393's and the sbd...sound is ok, not as good as i was hoping for tho. They are wanting a promotional disc to send out.  anyway, now here is my question.

What is the best (preferably free[any method  ] program) to capture the video from these 5 sources.
  - what setting is best for capture
  - what is the best conversion(mpeg, avi..whatever) to play in any standalone dvd player??
  - what is the best way to line up the 5 sources to splice/cut/edit/combine the video
  - will it be easy to line up the audio after all the video is done?  how do you do this?

I have read thru most of the other threads and seen people telling their favorite software, the consensus seems to be scenarist...GOOD GOD!      (anyone got a loaner copy  ) 
anyhelp would be greatly appreciated, esp in the software department.  Once I know what software I will have available, I can start reading tutorials, help sections and experimenting with this.

oh yea...so we tried to set the white setting for each camera so they would match up...three cameras were able to set, the other two weren't.  I was htinking about making these two cameras black and white(to hide that they are different colors, and to give an "artsy" look and feel to thie video)  Is this easy to do?

bah, enough from me, I will post more following suggestions/comments/questions.

thanx guys!

also, any links to tutorials/help that you have found really helpful would be great.  I have some links from other threads...

[spyder9]

I doubt you'll find any good video capture software for Free.  You could check Kazaa.  I grabbed some good hack software from there.

"Scenalyzer Live" is rock solid for capturing video through firewire.  I do alot of VHS transfers.  You may also need a Time Base Corrector to ensure there are no Frame drops during transfer.

www.scenalyzerlive.com     capturing software

www.tmpg-inc.com     editing & dvd author software

www.dvdrhelp.com     Video help site.  Has tons of schnizzle!  Great for newbies.

That's what I use.  Never dealt with 2 or 3 videos from the same show.  But I'm interested in knowing how to do a blend.  You may be able to coordinate a batch color correction for each by using Tmpgenc or Adobe Premiere (another edit software).

[firmdragon]

-take care of the sbd/final audio after the video is done. 
-5 sources.  hmmm you might end up w/ a little difficultly mixing it.  lotsa memory will be used and needed.  it might be out of your computers league.
-scenarist....all i can say there is be prepared for a world of hurt when learning this sucka.
-i would suggest getting a copy of adobe permiere or vegas video for both capturing and mixing. and probably color correctinon as well.  you'll be lining up all the camera audios.

[BJ]

-take care of the sbd/final audio after the video is done. 
-5 sources.  hmmm you might end up w/ a little difficultly mixing it.  lotsa memory will be used and needed.  it might be out of your computers league.
-scenarist....all i can say there is be prepared for a world of hurt when learning this sucka.
-i would suggest getting a copy of adobe permiere or vegas video for both capturing and mixing. and probably color correctinon as well.  you'll be lining up all the camera audios.

yea...BUT for the 5 sources...let me just say that ALOT of the footage on all but 2 cameras is JUNK....I will not be loading in a WHOLE set worth of all 5 at the same time...

I know this will probably be harder...but they didnt tape from start to finish on each camera...DONT ask me why...it wasnt me...i did the audio   

I will most likely be using "filler" from other cameras to put into "bad" areas of the two good cameras..if that makes any sense..

I will check into the programs listed so far....thanx and +t

KEEP IT COMING!!!

[spyder9]

This bit torrent site was posted on our board.  You can get a hacked version of Tmpgenc 2.5 and DVD author programs.  Free is good.

www.bi-torrent.com

[Tall Adam]

ive been meaning to do this with 2 cameras (i already made the tapes), and ive been meaning to ask how...i have final cut pro at my disposal...will that work for capture and mixing the two?

[hyperplane]

yea...BUT for the 5 sources...let me just say that ALOT of the footage on all but 2 cameras is JUNK....I will not be loading in a WHOLE set worth of all 5 at the same time...

I know this will probably be harder...but they didnt tape from start to finish on each camera...DONT ask me why...it wasnt me...i did the audio   

I will most likely be using "filler" from other cameras to put into "bad" areas of the two good cameras..if that makes any sense..

I will check into the programs listed so far....thanx and +t

KEEP IT COMING!!!

i use Adobe Premiere Pro. it's decent, and if you're using a PC (which i'm sure you are), then Premiere or Vegas would be the choices i'd go with for mixing the sources... just as others have pointed out. (although, i've never used Vegas, i think it's probably fairly comparable with Premiere... but probably lacking integration that Premiere has with After Effects, Audition, and Photoshop... which you might not need anyway.)

i've never used TMPG DVD Author for DVD authoring, but i'm sure it's decent. there are other programs out there that are easy to use, and you can find them pretty easily ('extended evaluation' versions); like Ulead DVD Workshop. a great program that gives you tons of options (like Scenarist) is DVDMaestro, which is now discontinued. but again, you'd probably be looking for something fairly easy to use that can produce decent results.

when you get your mixing done in Premiere/Vegas/whatever, export to DV .AVI format... or, if you're using Vegas or Premiere, save a step and get FrameServer (google "frameserver" and it's the first hit/result), and then encode with a QUALITY encoder like CCE a.k.a. Cinemacraft Encoder. it's fast, and it's the best quality encoder i've found... MainConcept is okay, and so is Canopus ProCoder. but MainConcept tends to lose sharpness in the original picture compared to the source material (when you look at frame captures, this is easy to spot), and ProCoder takes A WHILE to encode.

i prefer CCE because (a) it encodes the MPEG-2 video (DVD standard) the best of any application i've come across, and (b) it's the fastest encoder i've come across. on my editing machine, CCE encodes faster than MainConcept and/or ProCoder... e.g. MainConcept encodes at about 1.3-1.5x realtime (so a 90 minute video takes about an hour to encode). CCE encodes at 3x+ on my machine, so i can do a lot more passes (which preserves the quality of the video conversion) in the same amount of time.

as someone else said, line up the sources using the audio (from the video feeds) in your editing application. this is fairly easy... in Premiere, you can use the Razor Tool and cut small bits of video you want to use, and discard the chunks you don't want to use (this will save you time later on when you're encoding/exporting, because it means less video for the editing application to process/examine!).

back to Premiere, color correction isn't too difficult to do to match up the sources. and, making video black & white is even easier.

how long is the show? if it's over 90 minutes, you'll need to encode the audio to AC3 format. if the show is under 90 minutes, then stick with PCM (WAV or AIFF) audio!

if you need some info on where to snag some trial software, or help with specific settings to use (for encoding audio/video), just PM me and i'lll be happy to answer all of your questions.

good luck with the project.

[silverbullet]

Best to capture in raw avi format. If your computer can't handle the massive amount of memory then try capturing in mpeg-2 format which I understand is still dvd compatible. Double check no frames were dropped during the capture process

I use Sony Vegas 5 with a plug in called Excalibur 3.0. Excalibur help sync up the sources. Hopefully the video tapes don't have stops or pauses in them and ran continuous. Render the final avi or mpeg-2 video/audio and then burn to dvd with your favorite dvd authoring program.

[Ed.]

Best to capture in raw avi format. If your computer can't handle the massive amount of memory then try capturing in mpeg-2 format which I understand is still dvd compatible. Double check no frames were dropped during the capture process

I use Sony Vegas 5 with a plug in called Excalibur 3.0. Excalibur help sync up the sources. Hopefully the video tapes don't have stops or pauses in them and ran continuous. Render the final avi or mpeg-2 video/audio and then burn to dvd with your favorite dvd authoring program.

what exactly does excalibur do?  just sync up video sources, or does it sync audio and video too?  i'm curious, seems like it'd be a helpful tool.

[silverbullet]

For $100 Excalibur helps sync up video and audio. You pick a common point like a flash or drum stick hit on the sound and video clips and then Excalibur syncs it up. It does some other fancy blends I think but I prefer to do that manually anyway.

If you already have Sony Vegas 5 then try downloading the Excalibur demo first. I think it runs 15 times in full mode then stops working. You can't just reinstall the demo either to get it working for another 15 tries.

If you do a lot of video editing with mulitiple cams then it's worth the $100 IMO. The demo got me hooked so give that a try first before dropping down the cash.

http://www.vegastrainingandtools.com/

[Ed.]

thanks for the info +t

i'll have to look into it and try it out.

[Wiesel]

Best to capture in raw avi format.

This does only make sense if the used cameras captured the material in an analog way. If digital cams have been used (DV, DVC, MPEG2, etc...), it wouldn't increase quality, it would only increase the file size. The most common format is DV (MiniDV, Digital8), which can be handled by almost every editing program. Any newer editing software should also support native mpeg2 editing. I would also suggest you to use Adobe Premiere Pro, or FinalCut Pro if you're using a mac. They're (compared to other editing software) pretty cheap and offer more than you'll need.

The syncing of the camera streams should be no problem at all. You won't need this Excalibur for this, it can be done by yourself in just a few minutes.

[silverbullet]

I forgot to mention that Excalibur lets you preview your multiple cams simultaneously which is a great benefit knowing when and where to add your cuts.

[silverbullet]

Best to capture in raw avi format.

This does only make sense if the used cameras captured the material in an analog way. If digital cams have been used (DV, DVC, MPEG2, etc...), it wouldn't increase quality, it would only increase the file size. The most common format is DV (MiniDV, Digital8), which can be handled by almost every editing program. Any newer editing software should also support native mpeg2 editing. I would also suggest you to use Adobe Premiere Pro, or FinalCut Pro if you're using a mac. They're (compared to other editing software) pretty cheap and offer more than you'll need.

The syncing of the camera streams should be no problem at all. You won't need this Excalibur for this, it can be done by yourself in just a few minutes.

How about if you are going to make edits or add special effects? I thought capturing in avi format was the way to go for better results.

http://www.digitalfaq.com/capture/avivsmpeg.htm  Good link on this.

[Wiesel]

How about if you are going to make edits or add special effects? I thought capturing in avi format was the way to go for better results.

I asume you're meaning RAW AVI. As I said, it depends on which hardware (camera) you were using. Anyway, if it's a digital cam, you should capture in the camera's native format. It's the fastes way to transfer the data and it's absolutely lossless.

If you're just going to add it to your editing software, make some cuts (mix it), do some color correction and add some special effects, and then export it, there's no need of using raw avi, because the quality stays exactly the same. But if you're going to edit it in different applications, then you should use raw avi, or at least DV avi.

It's exactly the same as with audio files. If you have an mp3 and want to edit it in the same program and in one pass, you get exactly the same result as if you had converted it to wav before editing. But if you edit it different apps and/or more passes und use mp3, you loose information after every pass.

DV AVI is also a compressed file format, that's the reason why files are much smaller than RAW AVIs. Though they can be reencoded many times before you'll recognize any difference.
The biggest problem when working with RAW AVIs, especially in this case with 5 tracks, is that you'll need a multiprocessor workstation with a very fast HD RAID which is capable of processing such huge amount of data in realtime, otherwise editing will be the the blank horror. So just use DV avi, it's the best compromise between quality and useability.

http://www.digitalfaq.com/capture/avivsmpeg.htm  Good link on this.

The article is pretty good and informative, but as it says, AVI is only a container and no real file format, so you can't say "use avi".